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Jurassic Park Destination Sorna: Rescue Mission
The second book of my Jurassic Park: Destination Sorna series. If you have any compliments, criticisms, or suggestions please post them on the main Destination Sorna page linked HERE. Chapter 1 Tim Murphy sat in his office. "Here's the coffee you requested, Mr. Murphy", said a woman walking into the room. "Thank you, Maria", replied Tim. As the woman exited the room, Tim placed the coffee on his desk and picked up a remote. He pointed it at a series of screens at the front of his office. All the images captured by the various cameras set up on Isla Sorna popped up on the screen. Most just showed dinosaurs living their everyday lives. An Ankylosaurus and her baby here, a Tyrannosaurus stalking a herd of Iguanodon there. But the camera on the far corner captured something that truly shocked Tim. Four people trekking through the jungle. One was a muscular man who looked in his mid-thirties, another was a middle-aged woman with long red hair, and the other two were children. One looked about eight or nine, and looked very much like the man walking next to him. The other was a teenager, around fourteen or fifteen. He wore a black T-shirt, and had long blonde hair. "Oh my god!", said Tim. The next thing Tim knew, he was reaching for the cell phone in front of him. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ The wind swept over the desolate Alberta badlands. A lizard scuttled over a hill, and beyond the hill there lay a camp. Several people were chipping away at a Daspletosaurus skeleton with hammers, chisels, and brushes. Overlooking this operation was a man named Alan Grant. "Good work boys, that skeleton is coming along nicely!", he said. Grant used to participate in the digs themselves, but he had since retired from that job, and now he simply supervised the digs. He had to admit that he missed doing the actual paleontological work, but there was not much point in it after InGen had created living, breathing dinosaurs, and this was partly what had led Grant to retire. "It's for you", a voice suddenly called out. Grant jumped and spun around. A man in his early twenties held up Grant's satellite phone. There was a text on it. ALAN GRANT MEET ME IN THE INGEN HEADQUARTERS TOMORROW AT 4:00 PM IT'S AN EMERGENCY TIM MURPHY "Oh, Jesus", said Grant. "I hope he's not going to send me where I think he's gonna send me". "By the way, who's Tim Murphy?", asked the man. "John Hammond's grandson", replied Grant. "He's the new CEO of InGen, since Hammond passed away". "Hammond passed away?", asked the man. "You really need to get out more, Bob", said Grant. With that, he returned to supervising the dig. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ "Chaos is all around us", said Ian Malcolm as he strutted back and forth across the stage, at a lecture held in the local university. "One of the most startling examples in our modern society involves a little biotechnologies company called InGen. You may have heard about...", but just at that moment, Ian's cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out, and there was a text on it. IAN MALCOLM MEET ME IN THE INGEN HEADQUARTERS TOMORROW AT 4:00 PM IT'S AN EMERGENCY TIM MURPHY "The essence of chaos", said Malcolm to himself, "I'm afraid we'll have to cut this lecture short". With that, Malcolm raced off the stage and out of the room. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Alan Grant drove his minivan into the parking lot of the InGen headquarters. As he approached the building, he noticed Ian Malcolm standing by the main entrance. "Good to see you again, Alan!", said Malcolm. "Ditto", answered Grant, although truthfully Malcolm was the last person Grant ever wanted to see again, with the possible exception of John Hammond. "I hear you're retired, that your career has gone...extinct", Malcolm chuckled at his bad pun. Grant scowled, Malcolm thought he was so hilarious. "So, do you know what this meeting is about?", asked Malcolm. "I have a bad feeling about it" "Same here. Whenever InGen contacts us, it's always to go to those hell-on-earth islands". "Tell me about it", said Grant. The two scientists entered the building, and seated themselves in the boardroom. There was a large screen at the front, which suddenly flashed on to reveal the face of Tim Murphy. "I'm glad you could both make it here today. We have a dire emergency on Isla Sorna". "I knew it!", Grant whispered. "My Tim, look how much you've grown", said Malcolm humourously. "This is serious, Ian! There is a family stranded on the island, and InGen needs a rescue team to retrieve them". "Oh my god!", said Grant. "But, why us?", asked Malcolm. "No one else knows the island quite as well as you two", said Tim. "We have an InGen helicopter in the nearby airport for you two to get to the island". "Are you kidding!", said Grant. "We have no idea how to pilot a copter!", shouted Malcolm. "Well, you'll have to do your best. We tried to find a pilot to fly you there, but none of them agreed to fly to that island, everyone's scared to death of the place!". "Well, this is shaping up to be a lovely trip", said Grant sarcastically. "Look, all you need to do is fly to the island, find the family, and fly back with them". "Well, anything sounds simple when you say it like that", said Malcolm. "You don't have a choice, if you two don't rescue them, no one will. Now, exit to your left". With that, the screen blacked out, and Tim disappeared. "Well, off we go", said Grant. The two scientists made their way toward the exit. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ "Isla Sorna, dead ahead!", said Malcolm. "A.K.A, city of chaos". "Look out!", said Grant, pointing to a flock of seagulls right in front of the vehicle. The two swerved the copter to the birds' side just in time. "They seem to be in a panic", said Malcolm. Grant didn't answer, but just stared out his window. "What?", asked Malcolm. "Brace yourself", said Grant grimly. Suddenly, there was a huge crash as a giant Pteranodon collided with the side of the chopper. The scientists could hear its claws scraping against the vehicle's armoured exterior, its beak pecking through the metal. "I'm guessing that's what scared those birds shitless!", shouted Malcolm over the noise of the flying reptile attacking. Suddenly, both men felt their stomachs drop as the copter's nose tilted downward and started plummeting toward the island. "We're gonna crash!", screamed Grant. The vehicle slammed into the beach. Just before Grant and Ian blacked out, they heard low rumbling and stomping, and saw an immense, scaly surface before them. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Grant opened his eyes several hours later. He saw a pair of dark eyes staring into his own. He shrieked and lurched backward. He then saw about half a dozen Compsognathus feeding on his body. "Get off! Go on get, you creepy little bastards!", Grant swatted the small dinosaurs with his hand as they fled into the jungle. Grant moaned and painfully raised himself to his feet. He lifted his shirt and realized the damage the compies had done. Dozens of small, bleeding puncture holes were in his stomach. "I've seen you in better shape", said Malcolm, who had recently awoken himself. "Not much better though". "Very funny", said Grant. "Sorry, sorry. I brought a first aid kit with me, I figured we'd obviously need one. Want me to help clean up those wounds". "Yes, please", said Grant. Malcolm pulled a first aid kit out of his pack and took a cloth from it. He then wiped the blood from Grant's wounds and placed a bandage on each of them. "Thanks, Ian. I owe you one", said Grant. "Alright, off to find that family". With that, the two men began a long and perilous trek into the jungle. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ "At least that helicopter we saw landing proves that people are trying to rescue us", said Edna Lee. "It wasn't landing, it was crashing!", said Michael negatively. "They're probably dead by now". "Well, you never know", said Thomas. Chapter 2 Ian Malcolm and Alan Grant trekked through the jungle, trying to find the family, when they heard a low rumble. They soon came across a dinosaur about the size of an elephant, but with a long neck and tail, and bony bumps along its back. It was a young Saltasaurus, and it was simply grazing from a small tree. "At least this thing won't threaten to eat us", said Malcolm. Suddenly, a Tyrannosaurus burst from the brush. "But he will!", said Grant. Before the Saltasaurus even knew what was happening, the tyrannosaur kicked it to the ground and clamped its massive jaws around the sauropod's long neck. The young dinosaur was suffocated and died, as the Tyrannosaurus began to feed on its steaming carcass. Suddenly, there was rustling in the foliage, and a low growl erupted. The Tyrannosaurus obviously recognized this sound, because just then it began to flee toward the grove of trees opposite to the hidden threat. But the reptile wasn't quick enough, and the crunch of padded feet could be heard heading in the tyrannosaur's direction, even though whatever it was that was making the sounds seemed to be invisible. All of a sudden, as if for no reason, a series of deep gashes appeared out of thin air in the tyrannosaur's side. The mighty predator howled in pain. Grant and Malcolm then thought they could see something leap onto the tyrannosaur's back. The mighty folds of skin on the Tyrannosaurus's neck suddenly inverted, as if some sort of invisible pressure had been put on them. The tyrannosaur soon collapsed to the ground, as a chunk of meat seemed to rip itself from the dead animal's side and rise into the air, before vanishing down a hidden throat. The tyrannosaur carcass was dragged into the trees by an invisible menace. Grant literally pinched himself to ensure that he was awake during the event. "What the hell just happened??!!", he screamed, clearly very shocked. "I have no idea, it's as if some invisible predator just had that rex for lunch". "Whatever it is, I don't want to stick around to meet up with it again. Let's get the hell out of here!" _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Grant crunched across the jungle floor, with Malcolm following close behind. Suddenly, both men were blown back as a dark green blur whooshed across their path. A soft bellow followed soon afterwards. "What was that?", asked Malcolm. "I think it was an Iguanodon", answered Grant. Malcolm opened his mouth to reply, but just at that moment an earth-shaking roar erupted. "Oh, SHIT!", rasped Grant. "That sounded like...". Before Grant could finish his sentence, a huge shape crashed from the foliage and thundered in the direction that the Iguanodon had passed. Grant was able to catch a glimpse of a crocodilian head, followed by a tall sail that hung upon a massive, bipedal body. "Oh, no. God, no. Not..." "What are you all worked up over", said Malcolm. "That was a Spinosaurus aegyptiacus", said Grant. "One of the biggest, most ferocious apex predators on this island". "Makes sense", said Malcolm. "He sure did look scary, and that sail is the dead giveaway feature of Spinosaurus", said Malcolm. "Still, if we follow him, maybe we can observe how a theropod dinosaur hunts". "Good point. Since we're stuck here, we might as well have some fun observing the dinos", said Grant. The two scientists followed in the direction of the spinosaur. After a while, they found it cornering the Iguanodon against a large boulder. The iguanodont had looked large when Grant and Malcolm saw it sprinting through the jungle, but now, next to the humongous Spinosaurus, it looked quite small. Suddenly, the Spinosaurus lunged, grasping the iguanodont's neck with its arms. The Iguanodon attempted in vain to fight back, swinging its thumb claw at the spinosaur's neck. However, the predator was simply too tall, and the herbivore missed. The spinosaur grabbed the ornithopod's neck with its jaws. "Here comes Spino's signature move", said Grant. "Once he's got those jaws firmly gripped around his prey's neck, he'll snap that poor bastard's throat like a twig. I once saw a Spino use that exact move on an unlucky tyrannosaur", said Grant. "You saw one of these monsters kill a rex?", asked Malcolm. "Well, it was only a young one, and it seemed to have the upper hand in the fight up until the spinosaur snapped its neck. If you ask me, Spino just got lucky" "Shhh...he's about to do it". Malcolm pointed at the spinosaur as its jaws squeezed tightly around the iguanodont's neck. Finally, with a sickening SNAP!, the Spinosaurus twisted his head, and the Iguanodon fell to the ground, never to get up again. The spinosaur began to feed. It fed by nibbling off little bits of flesh and lightly bobbing its head as it processed the meat down its gullet. All the while, it kept one foot firmly planted on the dead herbivore's side. "Just like a bird of prey", noted Grant. Suddenly, the spinosaur snapped its head in the direction of the two humans. It roared and lunged after them, intent on defending its kill. "Uh, oh...RUN!", shrieked Grant. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ As the Lees trudged across the island, Conrad noticed movement in the nearby foliage. He split off from the rest of the family and followed the unidentified animal. He was eventually led to a baby Ankylosaurus. The armour plates on its back had not yet developed, and its club was little more than a tiny bud on the tip of its tail. As Conrad stared into the infant dinosaur's large, black eyes, he was entranced by its cuteness and patted it on the head. He then grabbed a cycad leaf to feed the young ankylosaur and held the leaf in front of its snout. The dinosaur sniffed the morsel before tearing it from Conrad's hand and beginning to chew it. Just then, a thunderous lowing sound erupted in the nearby jungle. Both Conrad and the young ankylosaur snapped their heads in the direction of the noise. The ferns began to twitch madly, until an enormous adult Ankylosaurus thundered onto the scene. She must have been more than ten metres long from snout to tail, and her bristling back armour was like a tiny mountain range. Conrad stood motionless, completely shocked by the sudden appearance of the huge dinosaur. The young Ankylosaurus he had been feeding cried out softly and waddled toward the enormous armoured lizard. She bent down and nuzzled the infant. Conrad realized that the adult ankylosaur must have been his infant's mother. Suddenly, she detected the scent of human on her infant, and clumsily swung her head in Conrad's direction. The young boy gulped. The mother ankylosaur roared in unbridled rage, and it sounded like the rumble of a thousand thunderstorms. She lunged toward Conrad at a speed surprising for an animal the size of an elephant that carries a half-ton suit of armour on its back. Conrad began to run, but he knew he could not escape. He knew the mother ankylosaur was so upset that he had come between her and her infant that she would not stop until he was dead. She swung her tail club at him, but missed, and the weapon flew straight into the trunk of a large Ginkgo tree. She bellowed in frustration as she struggled to free her tail from the wooden trap. She eventually managed to get her tail loose, but Conrad had run away by that point. She decided to give up, and returned to graze with her infant. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ "Keep running!", shouted Grant. "I think we have an advantage over him! Because he's so big, he can't fit very easily between the trees, thus slowing him down!". Suddenly, a pair of Velociraptors leapt out in front of Grant and Malcolm. Grant cursed silently, he hoped never to encounter raptors again. The awful, frighteningly intelligent pack hunters had nearly cost him his life on several occasions. Grant and Malcolm jumped out of the way as the raptors shrieked at the Spinosaurus, who roared deafeningly in response. Grant knew there would be a confrontation. The first raptor leapt onto the sailed predator's left flank, and made deep slashing marks with its claws. The Spinosaurus managed to grab the raptor with its jaws and throw it, killing the poor soul. The second raptor, enraged by the death of its comrade, leapt onto the spinosaur's neck. With a few bites and slashes, the spinosaur collapsed to the ground, as the raptor began to feed. Grant and Malcolm ran away as quickly as they could. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ As Grant and Malcolm fled from the raptors, Grant suddenly tripped on a piece of metal. He howled in pain and clutched his foot, while hopping one-legged on the other. Once the pain faded, he took a moment to examine the metal. It was unusual looking, as in it looked like what was once part of a vehicle. As it turned out, there was a whole trail of similar objects, which Grant and Malcolm followed. They were eventually led into a clearing. They saw a giant fish-shaped heap of metal, with smoke rising from it. It took them several minutes to realize that what they were staring at was the wreckage of a plane. Suddenly, Malcolm cried out, and Grant ran over to see what was the problem. Grant stopped dead in his tracks when he saw dead human bodies littering the ground around the plane. Dozens and dozens of Compsognathus were emerging from the jungle toward the bodies in a perfectly flowing stream of tiny green dinosaurs. They had been attracted from miles around by the scent of rotting meat, and many of them had already begun feeding on the carcasses. Grant nearly vomited, but managed to choke out the words "Oh, god!". "This must be the wreck of the family's plane", said Malcolm. "If Tim was able to spot them wandering through the jungle, they must have survived the crash. Look for tracks". Grant searched the clearing, until he finally spotted them. Four sets of human footprints leading into the dark jungle. Grant and Malcolm reluctantly started to follow them, dreading what they might encounter on the trail. However, they stopped dead in their tracks when they saw that something much, much bigger had also been attracted by the scent of the human corpses. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ A large Allosaurus emerged into the crash site. It must have been 12 metres long, and by appearances, probably weighed about 4 tons. The compies fled upon sighting the monster, leaving it to the vast banquet of human remains. However, mistaking Grant and Malcolm as rival predators challenging it for the spoils, the Allosaurus chased them into the jungle. They soon came to the edge of a cliff, seemingly at a dead end. They watched helplessly as the Allosaurus approached, satisfaction in its otherwise soulless eyes at having finally cornered them. Just then, Malcolm and Grant noticed a narrow slope down the cliff that was far too narrow for the allosaur to follow. There were dinosaurs in the green valley that the cliff overlooked, but all of them were either plant-eaters grazing on the sparse trees or very small meat-eaters that were too small and weak to pose a major threat. "Down this way!", said Grant as he began down the slope, with Malcolm following close behind. They heard the Allosaurus utter a roar of defeat. Grant turned back to see it turn away from the cliff toward the jungle. He breathed a sigh of relief, but he then noticed the Allosaurus returning, sprinting at full speed toward the edge of the cliff. "What's he doing?", asked Malcolm. Before Grant could answer, the allosaur leapt down from the cliff and landed on a narrow ledge. It then leapt down to another ledge. "He's following us by jumping between the rocks!", said Grant. "Why do dinosaurs have to be so persistent?", asked Malcolm angrily. "My best guess would be that their predatory instincts get the best of them sometimes. It leads them beyond the need for food and into a sheer, persistent desire to do what they do best, killing!" "Well, that's rather annoying!" "Tell me about it!" Grant and Malcolm finally reached the bottom of the slope, and they saw a herd of apatosaurs grazing nearby. However, with one final, mighty leap, the Allosaurus landed behind the two humans with a loud THUMP!. It roared deafeningly, with a ferocity that Grant had never heard in any other dinosaur's roar before, not even the T.rex's. Upon hearing the roar, the apatosaurs turned back to glance at the allosaur and began to flee. Just then, the Allosaurus lunged, and Grant and Malcolm sprinted in and out between the massive, tree-trunk legs of the apatosaur herd. The allosaur followed them. Sensing that the allosaur was directly beneath them, the apatosaurs became even more panicky. "I have an idea!", said Grant. "These apatosaurs are running much faster than us despite the obvious size differences we have, and if we latch onto their bellies, maybe we can hitch a faster ride and outrun that allosaur!" "That's completely crazy!", said Malcolm. "But still, so crazy that it just might work. Alright, let's do it!" Grant nodded in response and jumped onto the belly of one of the apatosaurs, gripping on for dear life. Malcolm grabbed onto another sauropod's stomach as the allosaur snapped at them. However, as large as he was, the carnivore still wasn't tall enough to reach them while they were riding apatosaurs, who were much, much bigger than even he. Finally, the allosaur gave up and turned back. Just to make sure the predator didn't change its mind, Malcolm shot a tranq dart into the beast's neck. The allosaurs eyelids started to droop, and it began to stumble around lazily before finally collapsing into a deep sleep. The apatosaurs started to calm down, and returned to grazing. Grant and Malcolm hopped off the bellies of the beasts and began to walk away, but Grant stopped when he suddenly realized something. "Shit! That damn lizard chased us off the trail. We'll never find that family now!" "I'm really starting to tire of these animals", sighed Malcolm. Chapter 3 The male Velociraptor was wandering alone, with his mate and chicks back at the nest. He was looking for a mid-day snack, maybe a rotting carcass, already brought down and abandoned by another predator, that would save him the stress of making his own kill. After walking a short while, he found it. A fresh, steaming carcass from a young maiasaur. He was wary, however, and he sniffed the air to make sure the predator that killed the dinosaur didn't still have its eyes on it. As he whiffed the breeze, he caught a scent that made the quills on the back of his neck stand on end. The source of the scent suddenly emerged into the clearing. It was a young Ceratosaurus, not much bigger than himself, and it growled a warning upon sighting the raptor. He hissed a challenge back at the dinosaur, and began advancing toward it. The ceratosaur did the same. With much less effort than he had anticipated, the raptor leapt and slashed the side of the theropod, and it scampered into the jungle, whimpering. The small dinosaur helped himself to the carcass. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ "Hey, look!", exclaimed Malcolm. "A camera! I bet my bottom dollar this belonged to that family!". Grant stepped over to Malcolm's location, picked up the camera, and switched it on... CAUTION LOW BATTERY ...was shown in red lettering on the screen, but then the message gave way, and an image of the family packing their van showed up on the screen. "This must have been taken just before they left on their trip", noted Malcolm. "Indeed", said Grant. "Here, flick to the next one", said Grant, handing Malcolm the camera. Malcolm pressed a button, and a different image showing the young boy smiling in a seat on the plane showed up, Tim said the boy's name was Connor or Cromwell or something like that. The next image showed the entire family screaming in terror as the plane plummeted into Isla Sorna, and finally an image of the teenage boy, Grant tried to recall his name, he was pretty sure it was Mitchell, or was it Milo, it didn't really matter at the moment. Whatever his name was, it showed the teenage boy smiling in front of the camera, in the middle of a jungle clearing. Grant was about to switch to the next image when the screen went black... CANNOT DISPLAY IMAGE BATTERY TOO LOW PLEASE INSERT NEW BATTERY PACK ...Grant swore in annoyance and threw the camera against a rock. "At least we have a pretty good hunch that they're alive", reassured Malcolm. "Yeah, just like I had a 'hunch' I would never have to visit this island again!", Grant said gruffly. "And yet, where are we right now?". Malcolm started to reply, but he was interrupted by a yowl from the tree above him. A dark figure leapt down and pinned Malcolm to the ground. He caught a glimpse of sharp fangs, glassy yellow eyes, and tawny spotted fur before something clamped down on his throat. Malcolm felt himself losing consciousness when he heard a gunshot. The creature on top of him let out a howl of pain and limped into the brush, leaving a crimson trail in the dirt. With agonizing effort, Malcolm forced himself to his feet. He felt dizzy, disoriented. And there was a strange throbbing in his throat. "What kind of dinosaur was that?", Malcolm croaked, barely above a whisper. "It wasn't", Grant answered. "It was a jaguar." "A jaguar? Wow, it sure is easy to forget about all the animals actually indigenous to the island with all these rampaging dinosaurs on the loose, but that was a pretty strong remind-", before Malcolm could finish that last word, he started coughing uncontrollably, and Grant, with alarm, noticed that he was coughing up tiny droplets of blood. "You need medical attention, Ian. Your jugular looks like it might be severed and you're experiencing some blood loss". "How do you know about all this medical shit?", asked Malcolm. "While supervising my digs, I've many a time had to treat a scorpion sting or a coyote bite every now and then. Anyway, where's that first aid kit you brought?". "In the bag on my back, I'll roll over and you can get it out". Grant unzipped the pack and grabbed the first aid kit. After giving Malcolm various forms of medical attention, they continued their trek. Once Malcolm was starting to feel a little bit better he said, "you know, I can't help but wonder how these native species managed to survive on this island since the dinosaurs were introduced". "Yeah, it's pretty amazing", agreed Grant. "Wait a minute, I read somewhere that it's dangerous to leave a wounded predator on the loose. Aren't you worried about that?" "A little bit, but that wound looks like it'll heal before he can make too many pain-induced kills". Category:Jurassic Park IV Category:FanFiction